Opinion: The B-2 Bluff

AEI fellow Michael Auslin on why the White House doesn’t respond to North Korea’s major provocations. Photo: Associated Press

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... back to Opinion Journal why Mary Kissel you're looking a photo ... of the B two bomber and S six teams that were flown over South Korea this week in a pretty big show of force a net North Korea's young dictator ... Kim Jong UN ... but I think the sight of this actually put a scare in him ... American Enterprise Institute fellow Wall Street Journal dot com columnist Michael Osborne joins me now ... by Michael is still a force repeal war we're really trying to send a message to Pyongyang ... a myriad of clear trends in the message is much is we're trying is a look at all the things we'd be out which one day we might even consider using if you cross the line ... the other hand you know the North Koreans is seen all this before we send aircraft carriers there you know ... those are big and scary so I'm not sure that this is really made much of a difference to be quite honest yet it's it's it's odd isn't it we do this kind of whip out a big provocation yet when they actually did make big provocations was and we do ... what's let's put up a couple of incidents of ... May two thousand and six the first nuclear test ... we do anything about that ... the idea of May two thousand nine second nuclear test any response ... not really okay ... now we had to attacks on South Korea March twenty ten the sinking of the Corvette shown on kill forty eight South Korean sailors ... and then in November we had been Island bombing killed four people ... Michael ... any response ... amazingly not ... ok and and start to get the picture ... died in December last year suddenly launched an during this year the third nuclear test ... by noon and ... we had to wait what I'm among the ... intent to do this show of force ... here you will know what everyone will say is a little each time he was a provocation we went to the UN we got sanctions we ... restarted the six party talks even been consolidating been and was in quite frankly meaningless because it has an obvious to change the game on the ground ... on North Korea has I think taken the measure not only of the US certainly of this administration ... has his rhetoric that we have rarely seen we know the copper phone lines before but this is ... this is going a little bit above and beyond that of the problem is that the US is why the Susan B fifty two years when the flamboyant we will look for spreading a peacock scale but ... when the time comes to actually slack and ... we don't do anything about it Michael could this I knew I knew young dictator North Korea actually attack the self pity do something crazy ... well you know he he he this week's ... EU the US in the Korean committed to defend privilege I think is still there ... he's had a lot of success in his first year we talk about that before and maybe he will miss calculate thinking you know what they're just not can it do it ... on the other hand ... the regime for decades has been a is know exactly how the unstoppable line ... drive us all crazy and then to toe back in it just keeps us on edge ... I'm that that that that they're getting keep doing that you know what one do when they wake up and realize that all the signals we thought we were sending they didn't interpret the same way ... ok American Enterprise Institute fellow Michael Ostling ... scary stuff out of North Korea thanks for being with us ... to get ... email us on Opinion Journal Live it WS J dot com that's all one word for sweet to me at Mary Kissel ... and with the Wall Street Journal Editorial board back again on Monday ... thanks for watching